<<Not coiled and to low C? Well,
Leblanc makes a plastic "Vito/Holton" Model of it's
student contrabass clarinet. It only goes down to Low Eb, and
is straight. It retails for around US$2000.>>

>Jason-

>I've been searching for a ContraBass Clarinet for
about 5 years now. I can't>afford a new one of the
"coiled" or other Pro models, so would prefer a
used>instrument.>Not finding anything, I
decided I could settle for one of the LeBlanc Vito
>models, rather than nothing at all. Then, I found
that no stores stock them.

>You have to order directly from the factory. However,
the factory doesn't >have any either. They apparently
only make them once in a blue moon. About>six months
ago, I was told that there was a six month wait before any
would >become available. Two months ago the wait had
increased to ONE YEAR!>By the way, your US$2000
estimate is several years old. I think they are up>to
about $2500 now.

>Fred McKenzie

The list is now us$3,725; they sell through
Brasswind & Woodwind for $2,286. And I believe that
they have some(minimal) in stock. My friend ordered his and
recieved it a week and a half later. It's quite a good horn,
very comparable to the "pro" straight Leblanc. (I
believe that, besides the body material, they are virtually
identical!)

<< I've been searching for a ContraBass
Clarinet for about 5 years now. I can't afford a new one of
the "coiled" or other Pro models, so would prefer a
used instrument.>>

Several weeks ago I posted to KLARINET that
Charles Bay is selling his fully restored (by
Charles Fail ) LeBlanc straight contra to low Eb. I
doubt whether he's asking more than $2K for the horn. I'm at
home now and my Rolodex is at work, but he does have an 800
number for Bay Clarinet Products or try area code 805
(Westlake Village, California) information. Good luck!

>Yep. Do you have players lined up yet?
Need a place to post the >recordings? ;-)

No,the next piece to be completed is
probably the trio for contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon and
percussion(marimba,tubular bells,glockenspiel).It's a kind of
harmonic/tonal investigation,quite like Braxton's music.The
horns play mostly contrapunctal parts in it,the tuned
percussion plays a kind of harmonic lineout.It would be very
nice to have the piece performed,since i seldom get to hear
that.The other works;"Passage"has only been started
out on,"A Journey"is a very large work that will
probably not be finished within 3 or 4 years and the other
ones are mere sketches so far.However,if somebody wants to
play the piece,i might put a little more work on that
side.Also half-started is a piece for wind ensemble featuring
the contrabass clarinet,bass flute and contrabassoon).So
long,

$2286 is definately not that much farther from
US$2000, and it' s a straight Contrabass. Given, it's not
wood, it's "Resotone" plastic, and WW/BW carries
it.

It's not listed at the WW/BW web site because the web
site isn't complete, but you can visit them at
http://www.wwandbw.com/ and request a catalog. Their
telephone # (Toll-free United States) is 1-800-348-5003.

Just ask them for a customer service representative and
see what they can do for you. Normally, they are VERY good
with instrument orders.

Before anyone of you decides to buy a new plastic LeBlanc
Vito contra, I'd like to share my experiences.

One of the orchestras I've played in once bought a Vito
of the obvious reason that it was cheap. I had major problems
playing that thing! I tried for over six months before I gave
up, and I'm patient! Very weak sound and difficult to play in
the middle break.I've also played a couple of LeBlanc looped
metal contras. All of them, even some very poorly regulated,
has been much better than the Vito. I'd recommend an old
looped metal over the new Vito any day.

>Why does everyone take pot shots at the
straight contra!? If he's like me, >then he doesn't
want a curved model. Even though you typically must stand
>to play the beast, it is still a more natural playing
posistion than on the >incredibly awkward curved
contra!!! Plus, the straight ones typically give >far,
far less mechanical trouble! You may disagree with me on
this; but >that's the way I find it!!! Also, I think
we all know what looks cooler!!!

Well, I haven't tried playing a straight one myself. Why
do you think the curved model is awkward? If anything, I
think it gives one much more freedom to position the
instrument where it can be played comfortably, sitting or
standing. I'd also be surprised if the curved model has more
problems than the straight model, as (a) curving the horn
allows the linkages to be shorter, and (b) its their
"pro" model.

>It's not listed at the WW/BW web site
because the web site isn't complete, >but you can
visit them at http://www.wwandbw.com/ and request a catalog.
>Their telephone # (Toll-free United States) is
1-800-348-5003.

Actually, its all there: you just have to know where to
look. From the main page, hit the button that says "View
Full Catalog Online". That takes you to a menu where you
can select the "Woodwind" catalog. That takes you
to a list of categories (like, "clarinet"), which
takes you to a description of each page. Clicking there
downloads a copy of the catalog page in Adobe pdf format
(which you view with the free Adobe Acrobat reader): it looks
exactly like the catalog page, and doesn't take very
long to download.

>Before anyone of you decides to buy a new
plastic LeBlanc Vito contra, >I'd like to share my
experiences...

> ...I had major problems playing that thing!
I>tried for over six months before I gave up, and I'm
patient! Very weak >sound and difficult to play in the
middle break.

Maybe Jim Lande will chime in here. He relayed warnings
to me from a mouthpiece maker about LeBlanc contra
mouthpieces. And that was my experience, too - I was really
disappointed in my Vito EEb clar and its LeBlanc mpc til I
switched to one made by Woodwind. Big improvement. Maybe that
was part of the problem with the school horn.

Thank you. I've been looking for altisimo fingerings for
the BBb clarinet but haven't been enjoying much success. That
register is so easy on the bass cl and bass sax that I had
assumed it would be the same on the BBb contra. Figured my
problems were due to "missing" keys (side F#/C#,
side throat Bb). Now I have another key to play with.(Of
course if someone has already come up with an altisimo
fingering chart for the LeBlanc BBb paperclip contra, I'd
love to hear about it...)

>...Spending way too much time at the
wrong end of the range......

Well, seems to me that one of the appealing
things about the big horns is their huge range. ...blissfully
spending way too much time at both ends of the frequency
spectrum %}